Thinking about where we find ourselves today, I see a myriad of forces and challenges.  

Turing's Cathedral:  the origins of the digital universe, the most recent book by science historian George Dyson, traces the effects of computers on humanity, starting with the development of the first computer, 'Maniac', at Princeton's Institute for Advanced Studies.  The computational power of machines, embodied today in the internet, and in the influence of Google, is creating massive changes, faster than humanity can track.  

left: science historian George Dyson; right: Google.  Post:  Victoria Meyers architect

In response to changes in population, species extinctions, Globalism, global warming, and other concerns, the rising interests in architecture include several different 'ism's':  variations on themes that encompass sustainable values applied to urban design. The newly emergent movements include Ecological Urbanism, Green Urbanism and Urban Agriculture.  

food urbanism and ecological urbanism.  Post: Victoria Meyers architect

In the wake of these fields of interest, architecture as the study of singular buildings has been eclipsed by the fields of urban design and landscape design.  

My terminology for the changes in the study of architecture is a move toward 'Porosity'.  Porosity meaning a move toward the design of buildings that mesh with landscape, and where the edge between building and landscape becomes obscured.  

Ballfield Terrace view : DWiP:  hanrahan Meyers architects;  post, Victoria Meyers architect

hanrahan Meyers architect's DWiP building at Battery Park City is Porous, and embodies ideas represented in Green Urbanism, Ecological Urbanism, and Urban Agriculture. The building features a half-acre occupiable Green Roof linked to Teardrop Park and other Battery Park City parks through a series of ramps, stairs and walkways.  The building is sustainable, and on track to receive a Platinum LEED rating.  DWiP's Porosity extends to the glass wall facing the Ballfields.  The glass wall is an 'Intelligent Wall' with an interactive interface between visitors' cell phones and the frit patterns on the facade, and will be launched in September 2012, with its own cell-phone App.

view of Meditation Hall and Administration Building
Won Dharma Retreat by hanrahan Meyers architects
photo: Michael Moran/ ottoarchive.com post: Victoria Meyers architect

Victoria Meyers architect is proud to announce that hMa's Won Dharma Retreat has been recognized with an Award of Excellence by the 2012 AIA New York State Design Awards Program.

The project is comprised of five buildings on a 500-acre site in Claverack, New York.  The architects designed the campus with a zero-carbon footprint, and all buildings are designed using sustainable materials and state-of-the-art green technologies to minimize energy use. 

The area where the buildings were sited had been a brownfield site, used as a rock quarry, and qualified as a Brownfield site.  The project included mitigating the quarry area, which has been covered with organic soil, and planted with meadows. 

 The Won Dharma Retreat is a spiritual center in Claverack, NY for the Won Buddhist Organization; sited on a 500-acre site.  The Won Dharma Retreat officially opened in October 2011.  Click here to visit the Won Dharma Center website. 
 
Click here to view more photos of the Won Dharma Retreat on www.hanrahanmeyers.com

Permanent Residence porch
Won Dharma Retreat by hanrahan Meyers architects
photo: Debra Bilow, post: Victoria Meyers

Won Dharma Center : view of Meditation Hall from Administration porch post: victoria meyers architect
photo : Michael Moran/ ottoarchive.com

Victoria Meyers architect (hMa) is pleased to announce that the Won Dharma Center is featured in the August 2012 issue of Architectural Digest.  The project is featured in the "Good Works" column in an article written by Fred A. Bernstein.  Pick up a copy of AD's August issue – on newsstands now – to read the review.

The Won Dharma Center, located in Claverack, New York, officially opened in October 2011.  Hanrahan Meyers has won both an Honor Award from Wood Design Awards program and a Design Award from the Faith&Form/IFRAA Awards program for their design of the 426-acre retreat.

Click here to learn more about the Won Dharma Center on www.hanrahanMeyers.com 
 
Click here to visit www.architecturaldigest.com

Meditation Hall porch
photo : Michael Moran/ ottoarchive.com. post victoria meyers architect

DWiP: view up ramp toward ballfield level, posted Victoria Meyers architect

DWiP: ballfield terrace, posted Victoria Meyers architect

The Digital Water Pavilion (DWiP) is a new 55,000 square foot building conceived as a built landscape and situated at the base of  two new residential towers in Battery Park City’s North Neighborhood.  The primary architectural feature of the new Center is a curved 550-foot long glass arcade wall facing West Street immediately north of Ground Zero. The arcade wall features a patterned interpretation of a composition, ‘WaTER’, commissioned from New York City composer Michael Schumacher. The glass wall sits opposite two swimming pools and a gymnasium inside the building and two ballfields and a soccer field outside the building. A new public promenade follows the curve of the arcade adjacent to the ballfields, connecting north to south from Murray to Warren Streets, providing access to the Ballfields.

The arcade has three courtyards (see photos below), with a stair in the central courtyard connecting the Ballfields to the Ballfield Terrace above, the Green Roof above DWiP.  The 16,000 square foot Terrace designed with SCAPE landscape architects has a series of ramps and stairs that reach out to the landscape and other parks in Battery Park City.  DWiP's roof, the Ballfield Terrace, is an occupiable Green Roof with benches and planted areas, linked to other BPC Parks, including Teardrop Park to the west.

DWiP: north courtyard

DWiP: south courtyard posted Victoria Meyers architect

Other program areas in the Pavilion include a gymnasium (pictured below), pool room (pictured below), dance studios, a state-of-the-art theater, and classrooms on the second floor.  Digital Water i-Pavilion is scheduled to receive a Platinum LEED rating.  hMa are also the Master Plan Architects for Battery Park City’s North Neighborhood, and developed the guidelines for the buildings, landscaping, and walking paths in the North Neighborhood.  DWiP is scheduled to open in September 2012.

DWiP interior: gymnasium

DWiP interior: pool room posted Victoria Meyers architect

DWi-P , posted Victoria Meyers architect,  click here to see more photos of DWi-P on www.hanrahanmeyers.com

DWiP (Digital Water i-Pavilion) by hanrahan Meyers architects proposes an interactive surface (edge) where visitors can be at an edge within the city of New York and share an interactive experience.  The experience is interactive, both as a live event, as well as through an App, developed as a mirrored experience of the building. 

DWiP's 550-foot long etched glass facade interacts with smart devices through an interactive media surface that embraces urban design, and encourages social interactions between participants, at the edge between Battery Park City and the lower west side of Manhattan. 

DWi-P glass facade in construction June 2012 click here to see more photos of DWi-P on www.hanrahanmeyers.com Victoria Meyers architect

DWiP marks the eastern edge of Battery Park City at the Ballfields.  DWiP connects pedestrians within Battery Park City's North Neighborhood to the West Side Highway pedestrian crossing from Battery Park City to the National Sept. 11 Memorial and the World Trade Center site.    

DWiP's 550-foot long glass facade is an interactive space of mediated interaction where visitors will be encouraged to post ideas, reactions, and thoughts about New York City, the waterfront, the Irish Hunger Memorial, Poets House, Teardrop Park, and other significant sites in the area.  The edge is also interactive through the DWiP App, where visitors will be able to interact with the frit pattern on the building's glass, as well as the Michael Schumacher sound piece, WaTER.  

DWi-P : view up ramp toward Ballfield Terrace click here to see more photos of DWi-P on www.hanrahanmeyers.com Victoria Meyers architect post

DWiP is on track to receive a Platinum LEED rating. 

In 1999, hanrahan Meyers architects were hired by Pratt Institute to overview the development of a new campus master plan, and to design Pratt Pavilion, linking two 1890's brick warehouse buildings:  Pratt Studios and Stueben Hall. Pratt Pavilion was completed and opened to the public in 2007.  Pratt Campus Master Plan is ongoing.  The Main Walk will be reconfigured and repaved this summer, with work starting in June 2012. 

The plans below demonstrate the progressive changes to the campus, initiated in 1880, when the Pratt family began developing the Pratt Campus to educate young people in engineering and the arts, to maintain American competitiveness. 

Pratt Institute circa 1900 : Small Privately Owned Institute:  Three buildings with distinct programs: Library, Engineering, Art / Architecture Victoria Meyers architect post

Pratt Institute circa 1990 : Unplanned Dispersion Victoria Meyers architect post

-  Enlarged campus with diverse buildings
-  Programs dispersed randomly throughout various large, anonymous brick industrial lofts
-  No distinct image
-  Building Entrances oriented toward streets instead of campus

Pratt Institute circa 2007 : Convergence Victoria Meyers architect post

-  Rebranding of the campus, making campus mall the focal point
-  Programs focused into single building entities with entrances turned to face the mall
-  Original buildings plus new buildings and additions give a 'branded' image to the mall/ campus

Pratt Pavilion by hanrahan Meyers architects: exterior view  click here to view all photos of Pratt Pavilion on www.hanrahanmeyers.com Victoria Meyers architect post

In 2007 hMa's Pratt Pavilion opened, to press and fanfare.  Pratt Pavilion was the first building constructed that begins to develop the concepts outlined in the Pratt Master Plan.  Pratt Pavilion creates a new main entry into Stueben Hall and Pratt Studios from the Pratt campus.  The original building entries were from DeKalb Avenue to the south.  With the opening of Pratt Pavilion, the Pratt campus became more cohesive and branded as Pratt Institute's main public space.  Pratt Pavilion was recognized with design awards from the AIA NYChapter, as well as the Architectural League of New York for design excellence. 

Diagram Relating Green Areas Throughout Manhattan to Battery Park City's North Neighborhood: Victoria Meyers architect post

In 2000 hanrahan Meyers architects (hMa) were hired as the Master Plan Architect for Battery Park City Authority’s North Neighborhood, the most forward-thinking urban master plan in the United States. The North Neighborhood is the location of the first green high-rise residential tower in the United States and is the first sustainably designed high-rise neighborhood in the world.  When the North Neighborhood is complete in 2012 it will include a total of 5 million square feet of sustainable buildings, an array of new technologies and operating practices and a unique integration with the spectacular natural features of New York's waterfront.

Isometric Diagram showing Battery Park City North Neighborhood's Green Roofs and Green Landscapes.  Master Plan by hanrahan Meyers architects, master plan architects for the North Neighborhood, Green Urban Design guidelines for buildings built in Battery Park City's North Neighborhood Victoria Meyers architect post

The configuration of the buildings also emphasizes this engagement with nature by creating an interweaving grid of outdoor spaces – including 4 major parks – with 11 residential and public buildings including the renowned Stuyvesant High School.  Individual buildings are designed to complete the urban blocks by aligning with lot lines up to the 11th and 14th floors, after which towers are placed up to the 25th and 32nd floors in a complex pattern of offsetting alignments to open up view corridors and bring light and air into the parks below.

Every building and every park built in the hanrahan Meyers master plan is LEED certified.   hanrahan Meyers are building the last building in the North Neighborhood, the Battery Park City community center, called DWiP –  Digital Water i-Pavilion.  DWiP is on track to receive a Platinum LEED rating. 

Click here to view all images of the Battery Park City North

Neighborhood Master Plan on www.hanrahanmeyers.com

hanrahan Meyers architects Victoira Meyers architect post

L to R:  DWi-P in construction, view looking north from gym room; digital rendering of DWi-P glass wall; Curtis B. Wayne click here to view all images of DWi-P on www.hanrahanmeyers.com

From heritageradionetwork.com:

On this episode of Burning Down the House, our host Curtis B. Wayne is in the studio with architect Victoria Meyers of Hanrahan Meyers. Tune in to hear about how poetics, music, and sound art has become entwined in Victoria's work. Listen to works by Harry Partch and John Cage; Curtis says these works speak to the architecture of John Johansen. Hear about Victoria's collaboration with sound artist Michael Schumacher: a building covered with frit patterns that trigger sound and music on the iPhone. Hear some architecturally influential pieces from musicians and composers such as John Cage's "Sonata No. 5 for Prepared Piano", and Philip Glass's "1,000 Airplanes on the Roof". Finally, listen to hear about some of Victoria's other projects, including the Bridge Studio on the Delaware River and the Infinity Chapel above Washington Square Park.

Listen to the interview on heritageradionetwork.com

Related :

Link to an article on "Burning Down the House" with Curtis B. Wayne from architect's newspaper